Back when I was younger, one of my friends was certain that I should date a friend of mine. “I think you would make a perfect couple,” she said. “Why?” I asked, as I myself was far from certain, but willing to hear her out. “Well, you like a lot of the same bands,” she replied.
Because I was younger, this made perfect sense. Suddenly, everything seemed clear. Of course I should date my friend. We could argue about which song by our favorite band was the best, and discover new bands that we could grow old listening to. Was it too early to pick a date for the wedding? Hindsight is twenty-twenty, of course, and I can now see that I was completely delusional. The fact is, you shouldn’t date people just because you have the same taste in music.
The new movie “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” takes place in a teenage fantasyland where shared musical taste is a sign that you’ve met your soulmate and you should spend the rest of your lives together. I didn’t have a problem with this premise, because I know kids think this way. In fact, it’s a good premise, and one of the endearing things about the film is the way Nick has made an art of making mix CDs that express his feelings better than he could in words for his ex-girlfriend. His ex-girlfriend is an evil shrew who throws these CDs in the trash, where they’re salvaged by Norah, who has never met Nick but thinks he makes the best mix CDs ever. And, what do you know, Nick and Norah meet at a club that very night and instantly take an interest in each other. Both Nick and Norah are played by two engaging young actors: Michael Cera, the gifted comedian from the TV show “Arrested Development” and the movies “Juno” and “Superbad,” and Kat Dennings, who played Catherine Keener’s daughter in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” They’re the best part of the film.
No, my problem with “Nick and Norah” stemmed from its psuedo-hipster vibe and the fact that these kids behave as if they’re 25 even though they’re still in high school. I wasn’t offended by the fact that Nick and Norah and all of their little friends hang out at New York City bars drinking until sunrise. (Nick and Norah themselves are both straight edge, and so they never drink anything at all). What offended me was the relative ease with which they did these things. “Superbad” isn’t exactly the most realistic movie I’ve ever seen, but one of the main gags involved procuring a fake ID so that the drinking could commence. And I couldn’t help but think of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” a far superior light-hearted teenage fantasy, and how Ferris had all these elaborate schemes for tricking his parents and school administrators into thinking he was sick so he could spend the day in Chicago with his pals. I mean, you’ve got to seriously wonder about any movie that makes “Superbad” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” seem almost documentary-like in their depictions of American teenagers. Where are the parents? I wanted to scream as I watched Nick and Norah, because when I was in high school I had something called a curfew, and if I wanted to stay out past my curfew I had to break my parents’ will by arguing with them for hours and throwing a huge fit.
While watching “Nick and Norah,” I recognized the name of director Peter Sollet, but I couldn’t quite place him. As soon as I got home, I looked him up and was shocked to discover that he had directed the excellent 2003 coming-of-age film “Raising Victor Vargas,” a gritty yet heartwarming tale of a would-be teenage lothario in the Lower East Side and his romance with a much cooler and more mature girl. “Raising Victor Vargas” dripped with authenticity. It was about real people. It was about as realistic as “Nick and Norah” is unrealistic. So if you really want to watch a teenage coming-of-age story, watch “Raising Victor Vargas,” instead.
The other film I thought about while watching “Nick and Norah” is a little-seen indie film of the mumblecore persuasion called “Mutual Appreciation.” Mumblecore films are filmed for pennies, feature a lot of improvised dialogue, non-professional actors and plots about aimless twentysomethings. One of the bands that Nick and Norah go see is Bishop Allen, a real band from Brooklyn whose guitarist, Justin Rice, starred in “Mutual Appreciation.” I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him on screen; it was like he’d been recruited to lend “Nick and Norah” some hipster credibility, but his presence just made me reflect upon what a good film “Mutual Appreciation” is.
Made in 2005, “Mutual Appreciation” is one of the few films I’ve seen that reminded me of my own friends. The plot is very simple: Justin Rice has a gig, he just broke up with his band so he needs people to play with, when his best friend goes out of town he and the best friend’s girlfriend think about hooking up but don’t, things are a little weird for a bit because of that, then everyone talks about their feelings, sort of, and the weirdness subsides. Maybe it’s because “Mutual Appreciation” is set in Cambridge, but it reminded me of the period during which my friend the scientist was trying to finish his doctorate and living in a laboratory at Harvard. If you really want to see a good movie about aimless young people, watch “Mutual Appreciation” instead of “Nick and Norah.”
Oh, and if you really want to see a movie that features witty banter and two characters named Nick and Nora, you’d be much better off with “The Thin Man” with William Powell and Myrna Loy. Here are some other movies you should watch instead of “Nick and Norah:” “After Hours,” “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” “High Fidelity.”
Like Nick, I used to love making mixes. This was back when people still made mix tapes, and so the process took forever. I used to spend hours selecting all the tapes I needed, locating the appropriate songs, and then lining the tapes and CDs up in order, so I could grab the ones I needed as quickly as possible and record onto a tape. I dreamed of making the perfect mix, but eventually I realized that there’s no such thing, because there’s always going to be a song that seemed like it would fit, but doesn’t quite work. I always liked to challenge myself by recording unusual combinations, and it’s possible I reached the height of my powers when I made a tape that opened with George Winston’s version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, “Trouble” by Cat Stevens, “Bones” by Radiohead and “A-OK” by the punk band Face to Face. “You know what?” my roommate said, when she listened to this. “It almost works.” Which I considered high praise indeed.
Got a favorite coming-of-age movie? Add a comment or e-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.
